Author: George, W.H. Krome

Publication Year: 1978

Media Type: Report

Summary:

Address by W. H. Krome George, at the 13th Annual Business in the Arts awards luncheon, at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 14, 1979.

Abstract:

Address by W. H. Krome George, at the 13th Annual Business in the Arts awards luncheon, at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 14, 1979.

In a society whose full character, drive and distinction is its pluralism, the arts, with our intellectual life, constitute the most pluralistic of all its ingredients. The vitality of our kind of society stems from the significance we place on the individual life and on freedom of the individual to find and express his own meanings. The arts are an outward and visible assertion of this conviction. They teach us that the sources of renewal for the arts are no different from those we rely on in a free society: there must be innovation, experiment and challenge and these are only present when individuals are free to initiate, when no single influence is permitted to become dominant, and where the combined and contrasting effects of many points of view is the best assurance that new points of view can emerge for testing in a free market place of ideas. This system for renewal and change in our society is in turn rooted in the habit of voluntary association which is the essential characteristic of self-government. It is the distinguishing characteristic of American society; it is the most profound source of self-reliance and freedom; and it is the bulwark against the invariable tendency of government to blur the distinction between public and private. (p. 2)

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Private Sector